Massey News interviews Hazel Phillips about her new book Fire & Ice:
After publishing Solo, about adventuring alone in Aotearoa New Zealand’s back country and mountains, in 2022, Hazel wasn’t immediately thinking about what would come next. But a conversation with fellow author Paul Hersey planted a seed when he told her that eventually, she’d realise she had all the right material for her next book and that the idea would simply crystalise.
“He’s an author whose writing I hugely admire, and it turns out he was right. One day, I realised I had all these Ruapehu-centric stories, and they all fitted together in just the right way,” Hazel says.
She set out to create a book that blends rich historical research with compelling storytelling, in the hope of reshaping how readers engage with the mountains of New Zealand.
“I’m interested in bringing history to life in new, creative ways, and inspiring people to engage with the maunga beyond a ski chairlift or referring to Ngāuruhoe as Mount Doom. In Fire & Ice, I wanted to tell not just what happened, but also how I chased after the information, both in a research sense and more tangibly, by lacing up the boots.”
In the name of research and driven by her own adventurous spirit, Hazel retraced the footsteps of those who came before to explore the deep and sometimes dark history of the area. Visiting the sites she wrote about was essential, though not always easy.
“I had a few moments of wondering if I was ever going to find these things in real life, plane wrecks and derelict huts and so on, of if I was going to have a bunch of great stories from history and a narrative of my own failure. Thankfully, that didn’t happen! Some things, such as the wreck of the Kaka and Bergersen’s Hut, I had to try several times to find,” she says.
Over 18 months, Hazel explored everything from fires, avalanches and secret hideaways to ghost stories, illicit grog-running and even the origins of Goatman, the half-human, half-goat figure said to roam the Desert Road, acting as a kaitiaki for passing travellers.
She says it took her a year to do 95 per cent of the expeditions on which the book’s chapters are based, and then another six months to sort out the final five per cent.
“I still didn’t do all the trips on my list originally – I could’ve written two books, not one!”
Despite her love for outdoor exploration, Hazel says it’s the act of writing that brings her the most joy.
“There’s a delicious feeling when the research is done, the content is all there and you’re laying down the first draft. Being a writer, which is to say sitting at a desk and writing, is the part I prefer more than being an author, doing publicity and so on.”
Her path to publication was shaped in part by studying a Master of Creative Writing at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University. Hazel says she wanted to challenge herself to see how she could improve her writing.
“I wanted to see how much I didn’t know, and turns out, it was a lot!”
With the guidance of her thesis supervisor Associate Professor Ingrid Horrocks and the support of her “smart cookie” cohort, with whom she still keeps in touch, Hazel found her eyes being opened to the concept of craft.
“I started to see creative writing as heavily constructed, in a good way, and that you can build a book in the same way you might build a house. Hard work leads to achievement and you’re not at the mercy of some sort of muse to get the job done. You just keep writing.”
You can read the rest of the interview here.
